What happens to REI rewards when the owner dies

No. That is a reasonable question, because cooperative membership sometimes does carry transfer or refund provisions that ordinary loyalty programs lack, but REI's governing documents close it off. The Articles bar membership from passing "by any form of succession," Bylaws § 2.5 bars transfer of the membership "or any right arising from that membership," and Bylaws § 2.6 provides that when a membership terminates for any reason the person "has no right to a refund of the person's membership fee nor a further right to any patronage dividend or other distribution." The $30 fee is called "a non-refundable membership application fee" in § 2.2, and REI's FAQ states "Memberships are non-refundable and not returnable." The one genuine nuance is that the loyalty program's forfeiture rules expressly "do not apply to a Member's Patronage Dividend or core membership rights in the co-op" — but those rights are still personal to the member and still barred from passing by succession.

REI's terms say no. Only the primary member — REI specifies "not spouse or other family member" — may redeem Promotional Rewards, and the terms state they "are not transferable upon death, as part of a domestic relations matter or otherwise by operation of law," adding that attempting a transfer "will void the Member's Digital Account and cancel the Promotional Reward." The terms also state that, except as REI expressly permits in its sole discretion, Promotional Rewards "do not constitute Member property." So an unredeemed reward is effectively lost at death, and the sensible plan is to redeem it during the member's lifetime. A family can still write to REI and ask it to exercise that discretion, but nothing in the terms obliges REI to agree.

Each reward carries its own date, and there are two rule sets. REI states the 2024 Co-op Member Reward expires January 3, 2027 at 11:59pm PT and the 2025 Co-op Member Reward — issued March 1, 2026 — expires February 27, 2027 at 11:59pm PT, and notes that the issuance and expiration dates of future rewards may vary from year to year at its discretion. Separately, Bylaws § 8.2(d) provides that a patronage dividend paid in merchandise credits or a written notice of allocation expires and reverts to REI if it is not used or redeemed on or before the second January 3 following its declaration. This is the main way an estate quietly loses the value: nobody looks at the account, and the date passes.

No. REI publishes no beneficiary designation, no survivor mechanism, and no deceased-member process, because under its governing documents there is nothing to claim. The practical step is to contact REI customer service at 1-800-426-4840 (or 1-253-891-2500 from outside the U.S. and Canada), or email the membership team at member@rei.com, to close the account and stop further mail and email. If an unredeemed reward is sitting in the account, that same message is the place to ask REI, as a courtesy, to credit it to a named survivor before it expires.

Handle it as a credit card, not as part of the co-op membership. The REI Co-op Mastercard is an account with the card issuer rather than with REI, and it is settled through the estate like any other card. REI states that REI Co-op Mastercard Rewards "no longer expire for the life of the account," but they remain tied to the cardholder and only the member can redeem them, so coordinate with the card issuer rather than with the co-op.

It is worth asking, and the timing may work. REI states that with a few exceptions members get one full year for replacements or refunds under its 100% Satisfaction Guarantee, with exclusions applying. Gear bought in the months before the death may therefore still be inside that window. Ask REI for the member's purchase record along with any reward request — the co-op holds the annual purchase history from which the Co-op Member Reward is calculated, so it can tell the family what was bought and when.